Changes can easily cause the fan to stall or modulate erratically if the voltage isn t correct.
Difference between 3 pin and 4 pin fan connectors.
The 3rd pin feeds rpm information back to the motherboard.
The 4 pin cooling fan is based on the 3 pin and has a pwm line pulse width modulation.
Line up the guides on the connector to the tab on the socket.
The three wire connectors are for small chassis fans with lower power consumption.
Connecting a 4 pin fan to a 3 pin socket.
A 3 pin fan connector will be smaller in size than the 4 pin pwm fan connector.
The so called pwm line uses the pwm mechanism to adjust the fan speed and the fan voltage is constant avoiding the control voltage to shift.
4 pin fans or pwm fans don t have this issue as the 4th pin on the fan allows voltage changes to be made more quickly and less erratically.
The pwm control wire will not be connected so the fan speed cannot be controlled.
The pwm fan does not need to rely on the motherboard bios which is more convenient.
2 pins provide electricity to turn the fan.
A 4 pin pwm fan connector will have four square holes on the front and four wires entering the back.
Three wire and four wire fan connectors.
Chassis and processor fans use either a three wire or four wire connector.
It will also have three square holes on the front and three wires entering the back.
3 pin fans or dc fans are typically worse than 4 pin fans when changes are made to the voltage in order to adjust the speed of the fan.
Most motherboards have 4 pin for the cpu.
If you connect a 4 pin fan on a 3 pin socket the fan will run at maximum speed.
The 4th pin sends a signal to the fan to change speed allowing the fan to run slower and.